Nobel prize for literature 2006

A life in writing: Last year's Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk has faced criminal charges and even death threats in his native Turkey, yet he refuses to be disillusioned about the country's future

The Turkish author Orhan Pamuk has reportedly left his home country to live in America amid fears for his life. The Nobel laureate is believed to be at risk of assassination in Turkey following the murder of Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink last month. Threats appeared to have been made against Pamuk by the man who confessed to orchestrating the murder.

The anger and delight which greeted Orhan Pamuk's Nobel prize in Turkey are no surprise, says Elif Shafak. Turkey has always expected novelists to provide more than words.

Robert McCrum: This year, the Academy has done the right thing, thank God, saluting a writer who, in the words of the Nobel citation, 'has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures'. With Turkey and its record as much in the news as it was in 2005, Orhan Pamuk has become the first Turkish writer in 100 years ever to receive this supreme accolade.

Twenty-four hours after Orhan Pamuk became the first ever Turkish writer to win the Nobel prize, reactions in Turkey are strangely mixed.

Turkish author Orhan Pamuk, whose trial on charges of "insulting Turkishness" was dropped earlier this year, has won the 2006 Nobel prize for literature.